


Given Time

by Adeline_Hatter



Series: Hatter's Voltron Oneshots/Drabbles [8]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Badly described Therapy, F/M, Grieving, Hamilton References, Healing Fic in General, James is a Dork, Katie is a Dork, Major character death - Freeform, Moving On, Pidge Healing Fic, Post S8, Post-Canon, S8 spoilers, The Jidge fandom kidnapped me and I'm okay with it cus they've got cookies, Unrequited Love, old sci-fi references
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-20
Updated: 2018-12-20
Packaged: 2019-09-23 16:52:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,134
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17084111
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Adeline_Hatter/pseuds/Adeline_Hatter
Summary: It’s with this simple note that Katie Holt decides not to be Pidge again.Not for a long time at least.





	Given Time

**Author's Note:**

> #JUSTICEFORALLURA
> 
> https://justice-for-allura.tumblr.com/post/181711316892/as-season-8-came-to-a-close-signifying-the-end-of

She didn’t really know what to do with herself once she got back to Earth.

 

It never dawned on her until she stood in her room, feeling too big for inside of it, but too young for everything outside of it at the same time, never dawned on her until she saw what was sat waiting for her on her desk, a sticky note plastered to it in the elegant handwriting, but bad English that belonged to the one person who hadn’t made it out.

 

When would she even had time to… She couldn’t…

 

Pidge picked the plastic container off of her desk, hearing the disc jiggle on the latch inside, she extracted the sticky note, opened her wardrobe, stuck the game inside with the trash sculpture left behind from months in space and left it there.

 

 

  * __Pidge__



 

 

_I went back and got this for you from the Unilu, I traded back the outfit for it since I figured I wouldn’t need it anymore._

 

_Now, you get to enjoy yourself!_

 

_Yours_

 

_Allura._

  


It’s with this simple note that Katie Holt decides not to be Pidge again.

 

Not for a long time at least.

 

* * *

  


Katie starts the next few months off as beautifully numb in front of others as she could possibly remain, her smiles calm but fluid, kept in place a mask of indifference.

 

Her family was there to catch her every time she faltered, for that she was thankful… But with it came a price.

 

She gets the hint towards the end of the first year since Allura’s death, when another business card for a therapist ends up on her desk in amongst the space where robot parts aren’t.

 

A knock sounds on the door to her workshop/office and she jumps, “Hey…” His name is James, she remembers that his hair swoops in front of his face and she sits up, “I didn’t wake you did I?”

 

There’s got to be a mark from her desk in her cheek, she can feel the intent and her glasses halfway down her nose, she pushes them up as her chair creeks with her standing, “Nope, absolutely didn’t Officer Griffin.”

 

When Katie officially lands her face back on his own there’s this small smile inching up his face, his eyes are scoping out her face so when she coughs he jumps, “You look like you could use a nap.” He slightly stammers, his cheeks blooming a bit pink, “I was just asking when we were gonna set off for the test flights.”

 

“Three PM.” She replies, feeling a little awkward and he looked it himself, “Was there anything else?”

 

James seems to consider it, “Um... No, not currently.”

 

“Okay?”

 

“Okay.”

 

And that, upon looking back on it… Was the first experience Katie had with someone crushing on her.

 

* * *

  


She makes an appointment with Doctor Ailia Williams, though she isn’t sure what she’s going to do for an hour talking with a stranger.

 

The small blonde woman who ushers her into a brightly lit but cosy office is not what she was expecting in the simple fact that despite the sunny and cheery vibe she gives off… Dr.Williams doesn’t beat around the bush.

 

“From the mental assessment I asked you to partake in before you came in, I can gather that you are experiencing grief, PTSD and more than a little anxiety.” She begins, her voice is softly accented, an Irish tinge to it, she taps her pen on her notepad, “I’m sure you’re a little surprised with that quick assessment, but I also asked about and… You are one of the Paladins of Voltron who up and left to fight a war before they fully matured are you not?”

 

Katie feels all of the moisture leave her mouth, dry feelings bubbling to the surface, “I… I was.”

 

“Anxiety is very commonplace in young women your age, I myself suffered from it, still do from time to time.” She adjusts her glasses over green eyes, flicking them up from the paper to Katie, a soft sad smile, “I thought we could start with that.”

 

There had been an insistent kicking to Katie’s brain when she walked into that office.

 

When she left it had only been kicking slightly.

 

* * *

  
  


When she sees him… Sees his face, sees those… _Marks._

 

The kicking in her head starts again as they sit at the table and have dinner, there are only six chairs but she feels out of sorts because there should be a seventh.

 

A seventh missing chair.

 

It’s empty.

 

It should exist and it shouldn’t be empty.

 

Keith shouldn’t be fighting not to look in the direction of her statue, his eyes glazed over slightly everytime he gets close.

 

And… None of them should be smiling and laughing like this.

 

But she does anyway, she smiles into the camera and holds back her tears as she feels the mice clamber over her shoulder.

 

Because Pidge can’t cry.

 

She just _can’t._

 

* * *

  


“ _How do you feel?”_

 

“Like everything is being crushed and nothing will be right ever again, empty… Heartbroken.”

 

_“Focus on a happier memory, on that… Is there anyone else who understands what you might be going through?”_

 

“Yes.”

“ _Katie, if you don’t mind me saying, in my professional opinion… Find them.”_

 

“I will, thanks, Doc.”

 

_“My pleasure.”_

 

* * *

  


She finds Keith sat on one of the spires of the new Castle of Lions, he’s looking out into the fields, at the small cottages that dot them, out at Allura’s statue.

 

Carefully, making sure she doesn’t slip even once she walks towards him, towards where he’s sat on the railing.

 

“Every night I save her.” Keith states plainly to her as she sits down next to him, “Every night I stop her, I tell her this isn’t how we save the universe…” He sounds like there’s a frog in his throat, “Every night…”  
  
“I save her.” Katie finishes, she looks at the cold stare of the statue, “I figure out a better way, tell Honerva to fuck off because she clearly has enough power to fix it herself.”

 

He glances at her, there’s something sliding from his eyes and she lets go too.

 

She’s about to let herself cry completely when she hears the roar.

 

* * *

  


There’s one startling realisation that comes to Katie in the smaller hours of the morning after she watched Green take off into the sky without her, they are still connected, there’s an update in her head every few minutes.

 

But when she’s lying in bed, closing her eyes and seeing nothing but stars beyond that, the realisation comes and all she can do is curse.

 

Green was her ride home.

 

In fact, all of them are pretty much stranded on Altea.

 

She can’t find Keith when they all get up for Breakfast, Hunk relays that apparently the Blades needed him back at base immediately.

 

_Every night I save her._

 

It echoes out into her head, out around her as she eats, half occupied with wonder.

* * *

  


On her 19th birthday, she doesn’t hear from Lance.

 

Admittedly… It stings, but not as much as it would have when she was younger, though the passing memory of a boy singing Happy Birthday over a badly shaped pile of food goo does make her smile.

 

Instead, she goes out, not legally able to drink but somehow she’s convinced to join Nadia and Ina out at a bar.

 

“You can’t stay in and work on _Robots_ on your 19th!” Nadia begins, pulling Katie’s hair back into a small ponytail, “Come on, we can go out, have some fun meet some lovely folks to snog…”

 

Katie peers over her shoulder, “Nadia.”

 

“Come on!!!! You’re hot, you aren’t doing anything with it, not even noticing that someone’s been pining over you for the last few years.” She pulls the ponytail tight and slides her arms down Katie’s shoulders to hug her neck, “One night out isn’t going to kill you.”

 

Hung up a little on the first comment, Katie looks at her in the mirror, “...I guess not.”

 

“Maybe it will kill James,” Ina speaks up from where she’s sat across the room.

 

Nadia hurridly shushes her, but it’s a little bit like static as Katie rolls exactly how that statement sounds in her head again.

 

* * *

  


She should have seen this coming.

 

It’s not a statement, it’s a fact.

 

“Hi.” He greets, awkwardly shuffling his feet and it feels so… _Normal_ that she wants to scream just a bit, because Katie has never stood in front of a boy smiling at her like she’s the motherfucking _Sun_ before, “So, Nadia says you need a ride home?”

 

James is… Handsome, she’ll give him that, she’ll also give him that he’s a bit effortless charming with nice hair, that makes her insides go a little flippy when he… Well, flips it.

 

“She was supposed to drive me.” Katie states plainly, looking at her white mary jane heels on her feet, at the hemline of her skirt floating over her knees, she has no idea why she feels so… Nervous, “Didn’t have a clue where she went, then Ina disappeared and then…”

 

He laughs, “You got Rizavi’d I’m afraid.” It could be a little bit of the whiskey that she’d had inside the club, but her stomach doesn’t twist unpleasantly at the sound of his laugh, “She did this to me back before the war, when she thought I had a crush on Kinkade…”

 

Katie laughs, he does too.

 

This time it doesn’t feel awkward.

 

In fact… Katie kind of liked it.

 

* * *

  


The third dinner when they all get together is easier.

 

But she notices, because how could she not that Lance is twitchy as everyone talks about their lives, as Shiro details how things on the ATLAS are going, as Hunk talks about his daughter Sky and his latest diplomatic dispute that he had to settle.

 

Keith talks about his work, but he’s closed off in a way she recognises.

 

It’s as she talks about all of the new advancements she and her Father are making in space travel technology that he stops, he’s actually fidgeting now, actually moving slowly and he’s distracting.

 

She hates that he’s still distracting, but he’s also… Restless as Coran launches into a story about running the day to day lives of the Alteans.

 

But, what’s missing now is that need to question him because Katie finds that she simply doesn’t care.

 

At this table, she’s Pidge to them.

 

However, to herself now? She’s Katie Holt.

 

Queen of Revolutionary Space Travel.

 

* * *

  


There’s a simple thread of tension when he steps into her office, a box tucked into his hand as he walks towards her desk, the usual orange pilot uniform gone in favour of the green suit that the now Earth stationed Garrison troops wore.

 

She’s not entirely sure what to say as she peaks up, she doesn’t know why.

“James!” She greets, smiling wide and feeling her stomach flutter as he returns it, but there wasn’t a reason for it to flutter like this, no reason at all… Maybe she just liked looking at his dorky face, “How can I help you?”  
  
Internally, she cringes at how customer service that sounds, “You can help me by telling me exactly how you suped up those engines on the last round of jets, we got around the globe in half the time it takes in the MFE.”

 

“What can I say? I’m a speed demon.” Katie feels the heat echoing on her face, a warm buttery feeling crawling up her bones, “But seriously what do you need?”

 

He fidgets for a moment, before presenting her with the box, “Since it’s Christmas time, I thought I’d get you something to thank you for all your hard work.”

 

“Oh?” Something compels her to take a step forwards towards him, taking the box, “I don’t really have anything for you though…”

 

James takes a step towards her to, “You don’t have to get me anything…”

 

There’s another flutter in her chest, as she looks up at him, he’s closer now, close enough to touch without meaning too, “I see… James?”  
  
“Yes?”

 

Katie decides to stop waiting around for life to catch her up, as Dr.Willaims had said at her last session a few months ago, “Take me out to dinner won’t you?”

 

He blinks, then blinks again and then finally, softly she watches him say- “Okay.”

 

“Okay.” She echoes, opens the box and…

 

“Thought you could use some new eyewear.” He whispers, as he plucks them out of the box and slides the sunglasses onto her face for her, “Suit you.”

 

She adjusts them, “Thanks.” She states, everything tinged in blue now.

 

* * *

  
  


“-So I said that the triangulator was off and you know what Ina said?” He was animated, a little boring but… She liked him, she really liked him, “She said and I quote ‘If you think my calculations are off Griffin I know for a fact that they aren’t and I will end you if they are’.”

 

Katie smiled, “Oh? And were they?”

 

“Sadly yes, I got to keep my life, my Mother would be proud about how I ran out the door.” His smile is infectious, “Sorry, I’ve been talking so much about myself that we haven’t talked about you…”

 

She laughs, “It’s fine, I never stop hearing about myself… Everyone wants to hear what I have to say.”

 

It’s mundane, a little boring but… It’s normal, “Any cool new projects going on? How’s that robotics project going?” He asks, picking up his wine glass and taking a sip.

 

“It’s going.” Katie sighs as she twirls pasta on her fork, “I got Chip to work for Shiro’s wedding, that’s about it.”

 

James’s hand slides on top of hers on the table, “You’ll get it.”

 

She believed him.

 

* * *

  


She can’t deny as she holds James’s hand, as they walk along the city streets, the chillier wind blowing through the city as they laugh about Kinkade’s latest adventure into film, which was videos of Kosmo whenever he came to Earth, that she wishes for a reality where it wasn’t him.

 

But that’s fleeting as he pulls her along down the street and they discuss thermodynamics, then astrophysics and her heart is pounding because she doesn’t have to simplify _anything_ and he just gets it.

 

There’s a bookshop still open near where they parked and they lose themselves in the shelves, he shows her all the books she missed from a few years ago, “I wish I had time read them all…”

 

“Katie, you have all the time in the world.” He breathes as she takes a copy of The Time Machine by HG Wells from him, she remembers being read it as a child, “There’s no war anymore is there?”

 

Something settles in her bones for the first time in years as she realises that for the first time in forever, there’s no restlessness, there’s no kicking in her head as she looks at this man that she’s just had a wonderful dinner with.

 

She’s not jumping to move, she’s not looking to speed up at a crazy speed…

 

Because Katie is good here, she’s genuinely good here.

  


* * *

  


“You’re dating James Griffin??” Romelle explodes at the dinner table and she almost drops her knife and fork, there’s a little lick of shock on the faces of Hunk and Shay on the other sides, “I can’t believe I didn’t see this coming… Or that no one told me!!”

 

Hunk cleans the mash potatoes that are in his children’s hair, “Romelle, it’s not that big of a deal…. Except it is.”

 

“But I thought Lance asked about her last time we saw him-”  
  
“Crystal.” Shay interjects, lovingly towards her partner, “It’s Katie’s business.” A hand smoothes through blonde hair, “Though, it is a bit of a crime that she didn’t tell us sooner.”

 

She brushes past the obvious question, “It isn’t a crime, you’ve been busy with Sky and Baron.”

 

“You could have told us at Baron’s baptism!” Hunk defends, “You were there!”

 

Katie rolls her eyes, “You were cooing over your children Hunk, which no one can blame you for… My Godchildren are adorable.” She coos herself to get a glare back from the dark-haired two and one-year-olds, “Besides, we weren’t together last July, it’s a recent development.”

 

“How recent?” He asks nonchalantly, almost four years since Voltron and he was still the gossip, “Not that I care or anything, just need to know if we have to invite him to dinner sometime is all.”

 

“Christmas.” She concedes in answer, burying her head in her wine glass, “He got me a present and I decided to stop wasting time and start living.”

 

Shay smiles, “I think it sounds perfect, I’ve only met him a couple of times but I remember him being quite the Gentleman.”

 

“Perfect for our Katie.” Romelle agrees quietly, “Though I can’t believe you waited a whole month to tell us.”

 

She gets the distinct feeling when she says goodbye to begin the drive back home that they aren’t telling her something.

 

* * *

  


“Do you really have to leave so soon?” His breath is warm into the crook of her neck, the air around her one hand that’s reaching towards the bedside table for her phone cold the moment it leaves the covers of his bed, “We could spend some time right here.”  
  
Katie hums as she decides not to look at her phone and instead rolls over to face him, “Time might freeze for you James Griffin, but I still need to get back to my own place to get ready for work.” She snuggles into his arms, lean and warm, muscular in a pleasant way that makes her flashback to exactly how she ended up here in the first place, “Seducing only works under the cover of night after all.”

 

Colour fills his cheeks, something she’s discovered in the last two months is that James is easy to fluster, so incredibly easy to fluster to the point that she might just love him for that-

 

She stops her mind stuttering in a warm bed, with a guy that she…. _Oh._

 

“Hey…” He brushes a hand over her forehead, pushing her fringe away from her face, “...You good? Are my skills in bed enough that they pause you midthought?”

 

Katie pushes him, “No!” She laughs, “If I remember correctly, you know your way around a cockpit better than you do any girl…”

 

“And yet… I got you here, Miss “Robots and high-class flight engines are my things.”, in my bed, about to stop you from leaving for at least another hour.” She leans closer to him, “See? My flyboy charm is already working it’s magic again.”

 

“Jay…. You may be a pilot…” There’s a boldness when she moves her hand up to his face, “But you are no Maverick…”

 

She pushes herself out of bed and reaches for his shirt lying on the floor, “Always thought I was more of a Captain Mal Reynolds myself.” He mutters.

 

“You are such a nerd…” Katie calls behind her as she goes in search of his coffee pot, “I cannot believe I ever came here!” But she’s smiling… She can’t stop smiling.

 

She hasn’t really frowned for very long recently, the most recent she can remember is that argument with him from a few days ago that they cleared up pretty quickly… Then made up…

 

“See, you’re a Geek.” James calls from where he’s sat in bed still, “I’m a Nerd, the perfect pair don’t you think?”

 

To herself, she agrees he’s right, out loud “Perfect? Perfect doesn’t exist…”

 

He snorts, she hears him stand up to follow her and then curse at how cold it is, “Would pancakes make it perfect?”

 

“Maybe…” She concedes.

 

* * *

  
  


She’s warm and dizzy, heartful, James’s jacket is warm around her as she reaches her apartment building a few minutes away, she’s burrowed into her scarf and smiling so wide beneath it that she almost misses him.

 

But she sees him because of the way he says, “Pidge.”

 

Katie stops dead, she can’t remember the last time someone used that name in the last few years, slowly she turns to face a blue pick up truck parked outside her building, “Lance?” She inquires a little in confusion, eyebrows furrowing.

 

His hair has grown out over the years, it’s shaggier, his jaw a little more defined, she asks herself when she last saw him… It would have had to have been Baron’s Baptism, she couldn’t remember him looking quite this… Rough then though.

 

“Hey…” He smiles but it feels off, there’s something off, “Where have you been? I buzzed but no one answered…”

 

She smiles in reply at him, her memory drifting closer to the slight domestic bliss of that morning, “I was out, stayed overnight at James’s.”

 

There’s this awkward moment that passes as she watches his smile contract, “...Are you dating James?”

 

She blinks, “Yeah.”

 

“Oh…” He mumbles, “I… I didn’t know.” Lance reaches up and scratches at his chin, suddenly looking quite bothered and her eyes latch onto his marks.

 

A feeling creeps up her spine, it’s familiar, she’d felt it so many times before, “Lance, why are you here?” She knows the answer, she doesn’t want to hear the answer but she knows it.

 

“I came to see you.” He answers quietly, “I thought we could talk… Catch up ya know?”

 

That was fine, that was completely fine so why did she get a bad feeling the longer he shuffled his feet, “You’ve kind of caught me at a bad time, got held up at James’s and need to get ready for work.” She grows flippant, she doesn’t want to be flippant with him but the way he looks at her, the way he looks at her when those marks still sit under his eyes, “We could do coffee? I think Keith’s in town for a bit and I know the others would be pleased to see you up at the Garrison-”  
  
“I just came to see you Pidge.” He cuts her off and her throat grows tight, “I… I just came to see you.”

 

She tugs the security of the jacket further around her as she walks up to her door, “O...Oh, well, as long as you’re here right? Shiro’s around too ya know, he’d love to see you, bring a bit of relief to his day.”

 

Lance is watching after her, his eyebrows furrowed as if he doesn’t quite understand something, as if he doesn’t get that she’s ignored his statement, “Maybe… Maybe I’ll come by then.”

 

“Yeah! Come by!” She hates how weird her voice is, how tight her throat feels, the _Dread_ swallowing up her spine, “I’m sorry Lance, I’ve got to go but-”  
  
“I could give you a ride to work-”  
  
“That’s okay!” She interrupts him interrupting her, something that’s annoying, “I’m good thanks.”

 

He blinks, she unlocks her door, “Okay…”

 

“Bye!” Katie shuts the door behind her.

  


* * *

  


She’s not often insecure about things, but as she presses her phone to her ear and the tears threaten to spill over, she paces.

 

She ignores the sounds of a pickup truck driving away, she ignores the sound of her nickname from his lips and then she realises…

 

“ _Katie?”_ James picked up on the first ring, “ _Katie, are you okay?”_

 

The feeling of dread that had been there a moment ago is gone, it left with him.

 

“I am now, Jamie.” She breathes, his voice fills her to the brim with calm, “I’ve never been better.”

 

“ _Okay, so what’s up?”_

 

“Any chance I can cash in the ‘Boyfriend drives me everywhere’ part of the relationship?” Katie smiles as she says this, he’s gone from her head now, there’s strength in her bones as she realises that only one person is the sole contributor to the feeling swirling in her heart.

 

“ _Was wondering when you’d want to do that.”_ He laughs, she loves his laugh, “ _Be there in five Donovan.”_

“See you in five Fargo.”

  


* * *

  


It’s more annoying, she thinks… Feeling connected to Allura explicitly in the days that followed, he just seems to be around when she least expects it.

 

He visits her office and asks her what she’s working on, just… Annoys her, but it’s different from their paladin days, it’s more persistent and she doesn’t find it as endearing as she once would have.

 

“Hey Pidge, I thought we could get lunch.” Lance asks one day leaning against the doorway to her office, she stands up straight again and adjusts her sunglasses, a weight and reminder that she has done what she wanted to all those years ago now, “There’s apparently this nice Italian place in town-”  
  
“Katie!” James pushes past him, collects her up around the waist and spins her around slowly, she forgets who else is there when she laughs and wraps her arms around his shoulders to stop her from falling out of his arms, his eyes bright and blue with those grey flecks that she loves, “I got a reservation for that Chinese place you like, thought we could go over those blueprints.”

 

She smiles, tightening her grip around his neck, “I like how you think Griffin.” Katie leans up towards him and he brushes a kiss against her forehead before he turns towards the doorway.

 

“Oh, hi Lance, how are you?”

 

There’s a narrowness to Lance’s eyes, a hostility that she hates that she recognises, but what she hates more is that it’s tracked to James’s arms around her waist, “I’m good.”

 

“How’s Altea?”

 

“It’s good.” He answers slowly, quietly carefully, “How long have you and Pidge been together?”  
  
James blushes, “Sorry, I completely forgot you were there when I stormed in here.” He laughs nervously, “A couple of months now right Kit Kat?”  
  
Out of the corner of her eye, she sees Lance quietly mouth ‘Kit Kat’, “Since Christmas.” She answers, “I decided to start living when I saw his dorky face.” And she doesn’t say it because Lance is there, it slips as easily from her lips as it does every other time she’s said it.

 

“I don’t have a dorky face…” James defends quietly, “Well, I do when I look at you.”

 

She feels herself blush this time and lightly slaps his arm, “Dork.”

 

“Geek.” He replies, she laughs a little giddy.

 

A cough and she feels her attention get dragged back to the third party at her door, “So, this is a serious thing?”

 

“Yep.” She answers in unison with James, no hesitation she realises, her shoulders feel lighter, there’s no weight on them, “What time is our reservation?”

 

“Two o’clock if you can get away on time..” Katie raises her eyebrows, “Fine if I can get away on time… Still, have a plane to double modulate.”

 

She brushes a kiss to his cheek, leaning up on her tiptoes to do it, “See you at one thirty?”

 

“On the dot.”

 

“On the dot.” She echoes as he lets go of her and leaves.

 

Lance is gone when she looks back to where he’d been.

 

* * *

  


“Keith?” She calls out to him as he exits a briefing room when he looks up hair swishing he smiles at her, “Keith!” She squeals barreling towards him.

 

He catches her just barely, “Woah there Speed Queen, what’s gotten into you?”

 

“Decent sleep, about three cups of coffee and-” Katie smiles wider, “I’m seeing someone.”

 

Keith’s smile grows a little bit as he sets her upright and they start walking together, “Oh? Anyone, I know?” She realises that he himself seems happier.

 

“I’m dating James.”

 

“James Griffin?” He stalls, faltering for a minute, looking at her with raised eyebrows as he slightly whistles, “Not who I thought would suit you, but I can see it.”

 

She rolls her eyes and punches him in the shoulder, “Uncalled for, we’re going out to dinner to celebrate our six month aniversary tonight.”

 

“...Never pegged you as a romantic Katie.” Keith admits, they walk down the corridor to Shiro’s office, “I hope he’s treating you right though, don’t know what I’d do if he wasn’t.”

“Keith.” She stops, “I can handle myself.”

 

He smiles a little wider at her, “I know, you…” He drifts off and she feels him close up a bit again, “Nevermind.”

 

“What’s up, Keith?”

 

“Nothing.”

 

Katie peers at him, “Don’t lie to me Kogane, I’ll tell your mum.”

 

“You can’t threaten to tell my Mother anything Katie.” He replies with a laugh, “I’m an adult, I don’t have to listen to her.”

 

She grins at him, “You still act like a child sometimes, must be the lack of social life.”

 

“I have friends other than you and the rest of the Paladins.” He states, “I’ll have you know that they like my nature of not opening up just fine.”

 

“Really like who?”

 

Keith laughs, “Acxa, Zethrid, Ezor and Allura-”

 

They both stop dead.

 

“What?” Katie mumbles, watching him press a hand to his mouth, “Keith what did you…”

 

“I forgot.” He mumbles, “Four years, four years and I forgot that she wasn’t…” He fidgets, something niggles at the back of her mind as his fingers tap against his leg, “Oh, the time… I have a meeting with Shiro.”

 

It feels like he’s covering, “Keith-”  
  
“I should go.” He insists.

 

Katie watches him about to leave and makes a decision, “Dr.Ailia Williams, she was my therapist for those first two years… Maybe she can help you too?”

 

His eyes are hidden by his hair, “...Yeah, I’ll… I’ll look into it.”

 

She knows that he won’t.

 

* * *

  


Five years.

 

She’s twenty-two when the camera goes off and she’s not fighting back the tears this time, the smile is genuine as she feels Lance’s hand hover behind her head in a small wave.

 

She’s twenty-two when she turns back around and smiles wider at the statue of her friend, before she turns around and welcomes and hug attack of her Godchildren, Hunk enclosing their mothers in a hug nearby.

 

She’s twenty-two when she looks over at Lance and smiles at him, before turning that smile towards Keith, then Shiro.

 

They all return it as she picks up Sky in one arm and Baron in the other to deliever them back to their parents, “Missing something?” She calls to the three of them who look over and laugh.

 

Romelle extracts both of them from her, “They get excited when they see you Pidge.”

 

“Aunt Katie!! Are you really building the fatest deep space ship since the ATLAS?” Baron asks, eyes alight, talkative for a two year old, perfect diction, Sky looks up at her, yellow eyes glittering with interest.

 

She laughs, “Yep! Gonna put Shiro to shame.”  
  
“I heard that.” Shiro states as he approaches them, to the yell of ‘Grandpa Shiro’ he smiles down at the children, “Nothing’s gonna beat the ATLAS, you’re Father’s finest work.”

 

Katie crosses her arms, “That’s the whole point of being the smartest Holt, gotta surpass the old to make way for the new.”

 

“I’m gonna be in the lab with you one day!” Sky speaks up now, “Working on those planes…. Maybe flying them…”

 

She smiles and pats the little girl’s head, “You’ll have to drag your Father with you.”

 

Determined looks appear on both the Garrett children’s faces.

 

* * *

  


“Pidge.”

 

She wants to ignore him, wants to keep packing to catch the next ship to Earth.

 

“Pidge-”

 

“It’s Katie.” She says a little lamely now, placing a t-shirt into her suitcase, “It’s Katie to my friends, Dr.Holt to the rest of the universe.”

 

“Pidge to me?” Lance asks, she hates how much hope there is in his voice as she stands up straight to face him, “Pidge, Katie, whatever your name is… I’m sorry.”

 

Katie raises her eyebrows at him, “For what?”

 

He takes a step towards her and she fights the urge to step back, “For not realising how… How I felt about you.”

 

It feels like a stab in the heart, “Lance-”

 

“Let me finish, please.”

 

She doesn’t want to, but slowly… Carefully, she nods.

 

“I’m sorry for not seeing you, all you did so I could be happy-”

 

“I didn’t do it for you.” She surprises herself by sounding so calm when she says it, for even saying it, “Lance, I never did any of it for you, I never traded away a game for you, or sent Beezer to take a picture for you… I never stepped away and broke my heart for you either.”

 

He looks at her face, “Pidge-”  
  
“Again, it’s _Katie.”_ She stresses, “Lance, why does it feel like you’ve come to try and win my heart? A heart that has not loved you for years.”

 

Lance reaches out, brushes her bangs away from her face, but she can’t find care in the touch, “But it once did…”

 

“ _Once.”_ Katie replies, she’s still scarily calm, “When I was _Seventeen.”_

 

Slowly, he retracts his hand, “You’re just upset because I chose Allura over you.”

 

This is where she decides it, she knows it, feels it in her bones, “Lance… I’m not upset because I chose her over you too, I put her first… And you let her… You could have… We could have…” Katie stills herself and takes a deep breath, “Lance, we saved the universe at a Price none of us could have _ever_ imagined…”

 

He’s looking at her strangely, like he doesn’t quite understand what she’s saying… Did he ever? Did he ever actually understand her?

 

“Lance, stop living in the past.” She breathes, words she’s repeated to herself so many times, “Move on… Like the rest of us have.”

 

She watches him, his face, she can’t locate that childish first love now, all she can find is… Affection for an old friend.

 

Lance stands there, watching her, shaggy haired, glassy eyed, Altean marks as she shuts her suitcase and walks out the door.

 

The last weight falls from her shoulders the moment her foot hits the corridor.

  


* * *

  


“Okay, if you get to put a fucking Batman poster up, I get to put an Iron Man poster up.” She complains as she walks in the door, “Tony Stark is better than Bruce Wayne will ever be.”

 

James’s laughter echoes as he slides past her in the living room, “I don’t think so, Bruce Wayne got all the charm.”  
  
“Tony Stark had the Jets.” Katie replies, holding out the box of doughnuts for him to take from her, “And Pepper Potts.”

 

“Please.” He replies, taking the box and setting it on the coffee table, trading it to latch onto her waist, “Pepper clearly won his heart because she suggested the jets.”

 

Katie laughs, wrapping her arms around his neck and lifting herself up on her tiptoes to kiss him, “James?”

 

“Yes, Kit Kat?”

 

She kisses him again, “I love you.”

 

He brushes the softest of kisses to her nose, “I love you too.”

 

“Jamie…”

 

“Yeah?”  
  
“I know you like to do things by the book…” She began, “But does that apply when someone found the thing when she was unpacking boxes?”

 

She has the pleasure of watching him freeze, “Ah, so you found it then.”  
  
“Yes…”  
  
“What do you think?” He asks a little nervously, a slight tremble in his voice, “About the comic-”  
  
“Yes, I will marry you James Griffin.”

 

“Oh you meant that-”  
  
She cuts him off by laughing and Pidge realises in a simple leap of time that she’s happy.

 

Genuinely, unbelievably happy.

 

* * *

  


“Katie…” Keith begins, fidgeting nervously as they sit in the cockpit of his ship, “You’ve probably been wondering why I’ve been distant with the team.”

 

She crosses her arms, “Are you about to tell me you eloped with Acxa?”  
  
“What?! No!” He sits up straighter, “Where the fuck did you get that idea from?”

 

Katie shrugs, “You’ve always been close and… I guess I have weddings on the brain.”

 

“Of course you do… And I’m coming by the way.”

 

“If you didn’t, I’d come up and get you from whatever corner of space you were hiding in.” He fidgets when she says ‘Hiding’, it’s a curious reaction, “Keith…”

 

“We were gonna tell you all, but then… Then she told me not to and you know I can’t exactly say no to her-”

 

“Keith.” She stresses, “What are you _talking about?”_  
  
“And you guys were all happy, but Lance wasn’t moving on so we knew it wouldn’t be the best idea to…”

 

Katie sits up, “Keith, who’s ‘We’?”

 

Then she hears the footsteps, then she smells a floral scent that echoes throughout the whips cockpit as she turns her head.

 

“We were going to tell everyone awhile ago…” Keith whispers as Katie only breathes a singular thing.

 

A singular name in reference to the woman standing there.

 

“ _Allura?”_

**Author's Note:**

> #JUSTICEFORALLURA 
> 
> https://justice-for-allura.tumblr.com/post/181711316892/as-season-8-came-to-a-close-signifying-the-end-of


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